


I Get Like This

by kevintheturkey



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Character Death kinda? but not really, and she has no choice but to go along with it., au where people think Marinette is dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 07:40:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14689536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kevintheturkey/pseuds/kevintheturkey
Summary: Lucky Charm can't fix anything that the akuma caused. And no matter how much Ladybug wants to, she can't revive Marinette Dupain-Cheng.





	I Get Like This

**Author's Note:**

> Characters are around 18-19 years old. I've had this idea floating around for awhile now.

 

 

She couldn’t tell whether or not her ears were ringing, or if her earrings were telling her she was about to detransform. Dust is still rising from the collapsed building, suffocating her with every breath. Or maybe she was crying? She couldn’t tell, she couldn’t focus on anything but the broken rubble and worried crowd. Ladybug’s Lucky Charm could fix anything after an akuma fight, so long as the akuma was what caused the damage. It doesn’t fix a building brought down by a demolition crew, no matter how much she wants it too. 

Alya is standing in front of the building in disbelief, her hands covering her mouth in shock. She doesn’t cry out or ask for help, because she knows no one could survive being in the middle of a building demolition. She knows that no matter who came and no matter how quickly the debris was cleared, Marinette Dupain-Cheng wasn’t coming out. 

She doesn’t notice that Chat Noir is talking to her until he puts a hand on her shoulder and in hurried tone asks, “What’s happening?”

Her mouth is dry, and she doesn’t know whether or not to blame the dust again or if it’s because she’s in shock. She only gapes at him, until the words slowly fall out of her mouth.   
“Someone was in there.”  _ I was in there. _

Alya finally says something, or rather, screams. The crowd is growing, someone is calling the emergency line. Chat is calling for her again, and she tunes him out until he gives her a gentle shake and points to his ears. 

“You’re about to detransform.” 

Huh, so they were beeping. The thought crosses her mind to just stay there, to let her persona melt away and reveal the clumsy girl underneath. To run over to the crowd, hug Alya and say “I’m here! I’m here!”. She wanted to go to school, bake with her parents, stay up late talking to her friends and watching stupid movies. But at the same time, she doesn’t want to take that away from them. She wants her friends and family to stay safe and have the opportunity to do all the things she wants to do in that moment, but she can’t guarantee that if she detransforms there and now. 

She considers leaping into the rubble, crawling under some of the concrete and letting the detransformation happen there, but it’d be just as revealing and just as dangerous. 

She could go around the corner, walk back and wave her hands with a smile, asking what the fuss was. There was only one problem: the building had one way in and out, and while people saw her running in, they didn't see her coming back out. She couldn’t make up an excuse for this, couldn’t blow it off like all her other disappearances. It had taken five years, but she had finally lost. 

Without another thought she swings her yo-yo around a chimney and zips off. 

She holds her form until she gets to the guardian’s home, detransforms in his sitting room, and cries on the floor until he comes home. 

 

She skips the patrol that night, favoring the soft bed Master Fu provides for her until her tears dry up. From her understanding, Chat didn’t patrol either. 

They don’t see eachother again until Hawkmoth strikes back, taking advantage of the mourning to akumatize her parents. By the time they destroy the akuma, hidden inside her old sketchbook, she’s enraged that Hawkmoth would take advantage of her parent’s grief and hurt. And she can’t believe that she managed to hurt them in such a way. 

When her Lucky Charm clears away the destruction and her earring starts to beep out its warning, she walks up to her parents. She isn’t sure what she meant to say, or what to tell them. 

“I’m sorry,” is the only thing that manages to come out of her mouth and she zips away before they can see the tears spilling over her mask. 

“Wait!” She looks over her shoulder to see Chat trailing her on the rooftops. And she waits for him to catch up, listening to the hurried beeping in her ears. Four minutes. 

He looks at her as his feet effortlessly land, worried eyes always darting back to where the mask couldn’t cover the tear stains on her cheeks. 

“Are you okay, my lady?” He asks her in a hushed voice filled with worry. 

She nods, wiping her eyes with the back of her glove. 

“I’m fine,” her voice wavers, betraying her. 

“If it’s about Marinette--” he notices her tense at the sound of her name and stops.

She hears the beeping again as he reconsiders. Three minutes. 

“I knew her,” he continues, ignoring how she looked away from him and bit her lip. “I know you don’t like it when we talk about our personal lives,” she looks back up to interrupt him, “but she was one of my closest friends.” 

She’s frozen, staring at him with wide eyes and begging in her head that this is when he stops talking. But she’s wrong, yet again. 

“She was so kind, and selfless and smart and,” his own voice starts to waver and he looks at his feet, “and she wouldn’t want you to blame yourself.” He looks back up at her, his eyes drilling into her soul and she never meant to hurt Chat like this she didn’t know she knew him and she was so  _ sorry _ . 

“There was nothing we could do,” he reminds her as tears leak over his own mask. She doesn’t want to be here anymore, she doesn’t want to see her friend cry over herself. 

Her ear beeps again, two minutes. She runs away, leaving Chat Noir all alone on a rooftop. 

 

Despite never finding a body, Marinette is presumed dead and a service is held for herby the end of the week of her death. It isn’t a difficult decision for her to not go, despite being invited by Chat and the Dupain-Cheng’s themselves. But she didn’t want to see her loved ones cry over her, and she didn’t want to add any unwanted publicity to the event as Ladybug tended to do.

 

Her fights are quiet and awkward afterwards, with little banter between her and her partner and leaving before they could give each other their customary fistbumps. It isn’t until two weeks after her death that Chat Noir offers her his fist, placing it in front of her face as she turned away to run back to Master Fu’s home. She lets a small smile grace her lips, and returns him the gesture before quietly leaving. 

Later that night, she asks Fu about leaving his home, and he gives her fake identification. He was prepared, and Tiki told her that this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. From that day forward, she was Bridgette. 

 

Over the next two years, she and Chat fall into their groove again but they never bring up Marinette’s untimely death or anymore of their personal lives. Bridgette began working at a floral shop, moving out of Master Fu’s home and into her own small apartment on the other side of Paris. Despite the drastic shift in plans and her future, she was able to build her own comfortable life as she continued to protect the city. 

Of course, fate had different plans, throwing her life into disarray again as it had a few years prior. 

She’s outside, watering some of the flowers that were potted outside the shop when he shouts for her. 

“Marinette?” 

She ignores it, hoping they’re talking to someone else down the street as she continues to work. 

“Marinette!” He calls again, and she thinks it’s Chat Noir until he turns her around and she stares at him in disbelief. 

She doesn’t know how or why, but somehow Adrien has found her.  

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure I can dedicate the time into making this a multi-story fic yet, but I definitely wanted to get some of my ideas in so I posted this as a oneshot. Tell me what y'all think and if I should do more. I might proofread it later i dunno yet.


End file.
